Lotus F1 News

[Feffman]

Court Hearing Will Not Resolve Lotus Row

 

By Jonathan Noble

Monday, January 24th 2011, 11:12 GMT

 

 

The row over the use of the Lotus name in Formula 1 hits the courts in London today - but irrespective of the outcome of the first legal skirmish, the matter will certainly continue to drag on until much later this year.

 

Team Lotus, which is owned by Tony Fernandes, is facing a legal battle with Group Lotus over the rights to use his outfit's name from the start of 2011.

 

He is not only involved in a court case over what he claims was an illegal termination of a five-year licencing deal he had to run as Lotus Racing, but he is also fighting an action from the sportscar manufacturer which disputes that he is not allowed to race under the Team Lotus banner either.

 

Group Lotus is going to court today to apply for a summary judgement over the termination of the licencing deal, which it believes means Fernandes' operation - 1Malaysia Racing – is not allowed to continue using the Lotus name in F1.

 

A judge will decide whether there are grounds for a full-blown legal case, or whether the matter is so cut-and-dry that there is no need for one. The latter outcome is believed to be unlikely, however.

 

Even if the judge did decide that Group Lotus has a valid argument to prevent 1Malaysia Racing from using the Lotus name in its title, the ruling would almost certainly go to appeal – forcing the court case further down the road anyway.

 

Fernandes himself said on Monday there was no possibility of the legal situation coming out of this week's court case preventing Team Lotus from racing under that name in 2011.

 

"Many confused about case today," he wrote on his Twitter feed. "It's not about Team Lotus name who owns it, which is in November. We brought that case to prove once and for all.

 

"Today's case is Group [Lotus] desperate attempt to use their one way unlawful termination of license agreement of Lotus Racing. Saying 1Malaysia can't use Lotus [name]. Part of post termination clauses. So nothing changes on Team Lotus."

 

The court hearing is scheduled to begin at 2pm on Monday, with a verdict not expected until Tuesday.

[Feffman]

I keep expecting to hear Soap Opera music playing!

 

 

Team Lotus Confident Over Naming Case

 

By Jonathan Noble

Tuesday, January 25th 2011, 10:33 GMT

 

 

Team Lotus has declared itself 'confident' that it will win its legal dispute with Group Lotus and be able to use its famous name in Formula 1 this year, in the wake of the first court skirmish between the parties.

 

The London High Court on Monday rejected a bid by Group Lotus for a summary judgement on issues relating to what Team Lotus claims was an early termination of a five-year licencing deal it originally put in place from 2010.

 

But as well as Mr. Justice Peter Smith stating that he felt the dispute could only be settled with a full-blown case, he also said that he wanted the trial to begin as early as possible.

 

A push to try and get the matter into court before the start of the 2011 season could not be realised, but a March 21 date has been pencilled in for the proceedings to begin.

 

With that date falling between the first two races of the season in Bahrain and Australia, it means that unless there is an out-of-court settlement in the next few weeks Team Lotus will definitely be starting the campaign with its current name.

 

A statement issued by Team Lotus after the court hearing said it was pleased with how the proceedings went and that it remained bullish the final outcome would go its way.

 

"Team Lotus is delighted that we were successful at the Summary Judgment Application hearing today and that the Judge threw out Group Lotus' application even before hearing the arguments of the barristers on either side," said the statement.

 

"Although this decision was never in doubt, it means that we start the 2011 season under the Team Lotus name. Whilst we expected that the Judge would refuse this application, it is good to have the decision in black and white.

 

"The Judge also felt that it was in everyone's best interests to bring the hearing date for the full trial forward and that is now fixed for 21st March rather than us having to wait until Autumn 2011 or even later. We remain confident that we will succeed at the full trial and we can now focus on the challenges ahead in the 2011 FIA Formula 1 World Championship."

 

Team Lotus boss Tony Fernandes wrote on his Twitter feed that he too was delighted with the current situation.

 

"Very, very happy over the judgment today," he wrote. "And extremely happy that full trial brought forward to March 21st.The good do always eventually win."

[Kitcat]

"The good do always eventually win." Clearly the innocent words of an engineer/manager, not a veteran trial attorney.

[Feffman]

Trulli Delighted With Lotus' Potential

 

By Edd Straw and Matt Beer

Sunday, February 20th 2011, 19:47 GMT

 

 

Jarno Trulli says he is delighted with the new Lotus, despite reliability worries, and reckons there is still plenty more to come from the car.

 

The Italian was sixth-fastest at Catalunya today.

 

"There is still a lot to come out, but so far it's very promising, very good," Trulli told AUTOSPORT.

 

"I'm happy because it was a long time that we were not so close to the guys at the top. I'm really happy at the moment about the way we are progressing.

 

"Obviously, I think still a lot more potential in the car. We need to work, we need to get the mileage done, in order to have more confidence in the car and also, set-up wise, we haven't done much so I think we are on the right way but we still have a lot to get out of the car."

 

Lotus has had some niggling reliability issues, with water leaks proving particularly common. But Trulli said he was actually more encouraged because Lotus was looking so strong even with the interruptions to its running.

 

"In general it was a difficult day because there we had a lot of stops, a lot of mechanical gremlins, which prevented us doing more laps," he said. "All in all I was very impressed by the car because we managed to do a few runs. Good conditions, good laptimes, so competitive."

 

He does not think Lotus should be any more concerned about its reliability than any other team.

 

Asked if he was concerned that testing was not going very smoothly for his team, Trulli replied: "I think we're not the only one down in the paddock. A lot of people are fighting with reliability, but we have to look at our car and definitely we have some stuff to get fixed."

[Feffman]

Reliability A Concern For Trulli

 

By Jonathan Noble and Pablo Elizalde

Thursday, March 10th 2011, 09:11 GMT

 

 

Jarno Trulli admits the reliability of his Lotus car is still a concern ahead of the start of the season in Australia.

 

"Yes, at the moment we still have a lot of stuff that is not correct, and causes some concern," Trulli said in Barcelona following the second day of testing.

 

"We still have a lot of issues we need to solve for the first race, I hope we are going to solve them and get to Australia reliable enough. This Bahrain cancellation has helped us quite a lot."

 

Trulli says, however, that the situation is completely different to last year, when the team was in a rush to get its car ready following the late granting of its entry.

 

"Last year we could not do that because they were not actually built by us, so we could not react," he said. "This year we have a lot of new stuff, and when you have a lot of new stuff you are going to have some reliability problems, but you can also solve them during the season.

 

"Let's wait and see. I am sure the first race will be better, and we will be in a better shape during the season as we will have brand new stuff."

 

The Italian, whose team was the best of the new comers last year, is still optimistic Lotus will be a contender for the midfield this season.

 

"I think at the moment it is difficult to judge. I reckon who is looking pretty strong of the midfield and we won't catch is probably Toro Rosso, which is going very well from the beginning of the winter testing.

 

"McLaren is not doing very well but still obviously ahead of us - the question mark is Sauber and Force India – those teams are the ones that probably we might be fighting with. But it is obviously too early to say.

 

"I am confident we can still be in the midfield."

[Feffman]

Kovalainen Confident Lotus Is Reliable

 

By Edd Straw

Thursday, March 24th 2011, 07:42 GMT

 

 

Heikki Kovalainen is confident that Team Lotus has put its reliability problems behind it despite a troubled pre-season with the T128.

 

Lotus managed just over 2500 miles during pre-season in February and March, suffering from a number of mechanical problems, but the Finn believes that the team made a big step in the final test at Barcelona.

 

"I'm not worried about the reliability," said Kovalainen. "It's the first car that the team designed ourselves and I think that the problems we have had are perfectly acceptable.

 

"If you look at the final day that I had in Barcelona, I didn't have a single problem. We can't guarantee that it's bullet-proof, but it's pretty good."

 

Kovalainen expects to be close the midfield pack on pace during the Australian Grand Prix weekend and that the team, which is only in its second season in F1, is making good progress.

 

"The progress that we have made since last year is very good," he said. "At the moment, I think that we are ahead of the other new teams and have pulled ahead of them.

 

"We are not too far behind the cars ahead of us and probably Force India is next target. We are on the right track, but still need to improve. The car needs more grip, more downforce, that's the main issue. This car is a good base, so I'm very happy."

 

Team-mate Jarno Trulli admitted that the pre-season mechanical problems held the team back. He is hopeful that by maximising the mileage this weekend, Lotus can start to realise the car's potential.

 

"The pace wasn't too bad," said Trulli. "We were more affected by the reliability gremlins than any pace problems.

 

"When you can't run very much, you cannot develop the car the way that you want, so we are a little bit behind on that.

 

"We can exploit the car better, but now we just have to concentrate on getting the best out of the car in the first part of the season."

[Feffman]

Glitches Hiding Pace, Insists Lotus

 

By Matt Beer

Friday, April 8th 2011, 09:03 GMT

 

Lotus technical director Mike Gascoyne says his team urgently needs to address its reliability issues so it can show what its T128 can really do.

 

The team's best result of Friday practice in Malaysia was 16th with Jarno Trulli in the first session. Test driver Davide Valsecchi's morning outing came to a slightly early end due to a sensor issue, while Heikki Kovalainen only had four laps when he took over the car in the afternoon before a differential failure struck.

 

"This morning we had a pretty good session, with Davide having his first run in the car here at Sepang and he did a good job for the team, although his last run was cut a bit short," said Gascoyne.

 

"With Jarno we tried both the hard tyre and the development tyre and have good feedback on both.

 

"This afternoon we had what looks like a differential problem on Heikki's car which meant his afternoon was cut short, so apologies to him for that.

 

"With Jarno we managed to complete most of the programme, despite changing his power steering, but unfortunately when he was on the soft tyres traffic held him up which meant he wasn't able to extract the maximum speed from the car.

 

"Despite this it is clear that the pace of the car is closer to the midfield than we were in Melbourne and now the onus is on us to make sure the reliability issues are solved and give the drivers a chance to show what the car can really do."

 

Team boss Tony Fernandes remains certain that Lotus is quicker around Sepang than it looked today.

 

"If Jarno had not had traffic issues we would have been much closer to being able to show our true pace than we were in Melbourne and even though we keep being dogged by reliability issues we are still very excited about the weekend ahead and what will happen in qualifying tomorrow," he said.

[Feffman]

Team Lotus Linked to Caterham Tie-Up

 

By Jonathan Noble

Thursday, April 21st 2011, 15:26 GMT

 

 

Team Lotus has been linked to a tie-up deal with sportscar manufacturer Caterham, with an announcement about a takeover possible as early as next week.

 

The Hingham-based outfit has announced that it is to hold a major press conference at Duxford Airfield next week - although it has not confirmed any further details.

 

In an invite sent to the press, the team stated that the media event would be "an incredibly exciting announcement about the future of the team".

 

Sources have revealed to AUTOSPORT that Team Lotus could be on the verge of a takeover of Caterham - which if it came off would provide obvious marketing and technical opportunities between the F1 operation and the road car business.

 

The link with Caterham could also in theory give the F1 team another option in terms of a future brand name for the outfit, if it opts to move away from the 'Team Lotus' moniker on the back of the dispute with Group Lotus.

 

Team Lotus declined to comment on the Caterham speculation when contacted by AUTOSPORT on Thursday.

 

Next week's press event will also likely come before there is any firm answer from the British courts about the ongoing Lotus naming dispute.

 

It had originally been hoped that the judge could issue his verdict as early as this week, but sources suggest that there will now be a delay for several weeks – meaning the issue will not be settled until next month.

[Feffman]

Lotus Eyes Points Finishes From Spain

 

By Jonathan Noble

Tuesday, April 26th 2011, 09:40 GMT

 

Team Lotus can set it sights on delivering its first points finishes from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards thanks to the major update of its car planned for that event, reckons technical chief Mike Gascoyne.

 

The team is on course to deliver a major overhaul of its car for Barcelona, which will include the team's version of the exhaust-blown diffuser that a number of other teams have already introduced this year.

 

And hopes for a big step forward in pace are such that Gascoyne is optimistic it can lift his outfit from the back end of the midfield right into the chase for a top ten finish.

 

"I think if we look at scoring points, we have to look at Barcelona onwards," he told the official Team Lotus website. "The updates to the car are going to be very significant."

 

Speaking in detail about the upgrade plans for the car - which will also include tweaks to overcome the power-steering issues the team has suffered from - Gascoyne said: "Our major update is coming along for Barcelona, which will be a major update for the diffuser and the rear end of car.

 

"It will bring quite a lot of performance to the car, and we've got some other smaller updates for Barcelona [too]. And then also smaller updates for Turkey as well."

 

Gascoyne has said he is satisfied with the performance of the team in the first three races of the year, and he thinks the difficulties it has faced getting its tyres into the right operating window in cooler conditions should not be a problem for too much longer.

 

"It's good to be back after the first three flyaway races," he said. "It is always quite an intense time getting everything freighted out to those flyaway races, and it is difficult to get many updates onto the car.

 

"In general we are reasonably pleased. We had four out of six finishes and showed good pace in the races – China especially. We qualified very well in Malaysia, very close to the teams in front.

 

"The one negative is we have struggled a bit with qualifying and [single] lap pace, especially in cooler conditions and cooler track temperatures, but I think that is something we are getting on top of. Coming up for the next few races won't be a problem."

 

Team Lotus is due to announce a tie-up with British sportscar maker Caterham during a media event at Duxford on Wednesday, a move which will see an expansion of the F1 outfit's off-track activities.

[Feffman]

Lotus Confirms Caterham Purchase

 

By Pablo Elizalde

Wednesday, April 27th 2011, 10:05 GMT

 

Team Lotus Enterprises has confirmed the purchase of British sportscar maker Caterham Cars, as reported by AUTOSPORT last week.

 

The deal will enable the lightweight sportscar manufacturer to "expand its brand profile and product family," according to Team Lotus.

 

"Caterham has a unique place at the heart of the motoring world," said Team Lotus owner Tony Fernandes. "As well as being proudly and staunchly British, it has an enviable and uniquely unblemished reputation within the industry for performance, handling and engineering excellence.

 

"Caterham Cars has remained wholly faithful to Colin Chapman's philosophy of 'less is more', and the DNA of the original Seven can still be traced to the newest additions to Caterham's product offering.

 

"It is already a successful business with sales across Europe, Japan, Australia and the Middle East, and under the guidance of the existing management team, we now have all the ingredients and the launch pad to further evolve that spirit and take Caterham to new exciting horizons with innovative products and greater global brand exposure."

 

The announcement comes before a decision from the British courts about the ongoing Lotus naming dispute, although there was no mention of a rumoured name change in the statement.

 

The team said that the purchase will signal the continued development of its famous Seven brand, using F1 technology.

 

Caterham Cars' managing director Ansar Ali added: "This is yet another exciting chapter in the Caterham story. Until now, the resources Caterham has had at its disposal have, naturally, limited the exposure of the Caterham driving experience and the legendary Seven has had to rely almost entirely on its remarkable reputation and legacy.

 

"We will remain entirely true to the philosophy that we, as custodians of one man's motoring concept, have protected for nearly 40 years.

 

"However, the acquisition of the company by Team Lotus Enterprises will allow our existing management team to take Caterham's core spirit of pure driving enjoyment to a hitherto un-served audience.

 

"While the Seven will now have the global springboard it deserves and will continue to be evolved yet further, we also have the opportunity to expand the Caterham family beyond the Seven and SP/300.R and breathe new life into our uniquely respected brand and mature it into a truly global business."